Goodbye Blue Sky
by Mishiko Shinsei
Summary: AU. SetoJou, YamiYugi, implied BakuraRyou and OtogiBakura. Jou and others try to survive an unexplained tragic event. Warning: Character death. Written for A Dragon's Lair's Hot Shot Challenge. Disclaimer: Just own the words, not the folks.


Disclamer: Just own the words, not the folks.

**Good-bye Blue Sky**

It had all been so sudden.

One moment, Jou was sitting in for Seto in his business class listening to the teacher drone on and on while the other finished a budget meeting, the next there were explosions going off all around him.

He'd scrambled to his feet after being knocked out of his chair by the first of a series of blasts and high-tailed it out of the classroom. Running at top speed down what remained of the dimly lit halls of Domino High School, he headed for his usual classroom to make sure that his friends had made it out before he escaped.

The gaping hole that greeted him where his classroom and friends should have been took his breath away. He fell to his knees in shock, tears streaming down his face that he hadn't realized were falling. Another explosion nearby shook him from his grief stricken stupor and he staggered to his feet.

'Seto!' his panicked mind screamed at him.

Whipping out the phone his love had given him, he hit speed dial first for Seto's cell and then for his home with no response. His third try to reach his boyfriend of two years at his office resulted in an 'all circuits are busy' error message.

Now out of the school, he could clearly see what was happening. From somewhere south of the city, missiles were leveling Domino. The school was already in ruins, along with several buildings and stores nearby. People were running and screaming all over. Despite having seen what he thought was Honda's wristwatch at the end of a severed arm, and a bloody piece of Yugi's puzzle, he continued to hunt through the crowd with his eyes as his mind tried to make sense of what was going on.

The explosion of the gas station down the street knocked him and a few others off their feet. Jou looked up from his place in the debris just in time to see Kaiba Tower in the distance getting hit by a barrage of missiles and exploding spectacularly.

"Nooo! Seto!" He screamed, reaching futilely toward the ruined Domino City landmark.

Great heaving sobs shook his body for several minutes before he threw up all over the ground in front of him. Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, he backed away from the mess he made to sit trembling and crying under what was left of the tree that once stood at the school gates. He had nothing now. No one.

Honda, Yugi and Anzu were gone. He'd lost Shizuka three years ago when she and his mom had been killed in an accident by a truck driver who'd fallen asleep at the wheel. He'd lost his dad to the bottle and the gutter not long after that…

And now Seto.

Seto had saved him three years ago, literally. It had been Seto who'd found him early that morning at school. Jou had broken into the nurses' cabinet and taken an entire bottle of some pain medication and sat on the floor waiting to die. He'd had his friends then, but even their presence couldn't soothe the ache in his heart. To have his parents finally agree to a reconciliation, and even have his mom and Shizuka move back in and his dad clean, sober and working a well-paying steady job, only to have it all snatched away from him in less than two months had eventually proved to be more than he could bear.

He'd tried to take care of his dad and mask his grief, even working three part time jobs in order to distract himself from the pain and to try to pay bills and the rent. But then the school found out he was working and forced him to stop, his dad fell off the planet, and the apartment complex served him with an eviction notice after he'd gotten three month's behind in the rent. He gave up.

That morning he'd planned to die. But Seto, chronic work-a-holic that he was, had pulled an all-nighter and had arrived at the school desperately needing some aspirin since he'd run out of it early that morning. He'd found Jou barely coherent on the floor, determined what had happened by Jou's slurred responses to his questions and the empty pill bottle nearby, and called an ambulance from his cell. Jou awoke to a hospital bed inside an opulent bedroom.

He later found out that Mokuba had gotten the entire story from his friends and had bullied Seto into taking him back to the mansion, getting what was left in Jou's apartment before it was thrown out into the streets, and had even arranged for some counseling for his suicide attempt and again a few months later when his father's body had been found.

Gods, Mokuba! He hadn't even thought about his 'little brother'! He'd need Jou now that…now that…he couldn't even think it. Pulling himself up, he tried to focus on finding Mokuba as explosions continued to rock the city.

Loping along down demolished streets toward Mokuba's school several blocks away, he tried to figure out who would be bombing the city and why, all the while attempting to ignore the bodies and body parts littering the ground all around him. He thought about helping some of the injured, but couldn't chance that the slightest delay might mean Mokuba's injury or death. He wouldn't allow himself to think that he was already too late; at least not until he saw the pile of rubble that had once been Domino Middle School.

Stumbling around the perimeter of the still burning building, he saw no signs that anyone had made it out alive. Though the tears came readily when he finally collapsed on the ground, his reflex to vomit again produced nothing but dry heaves. He wasn't sure how long he sat against the playground fence, sobbing and watching the building burn, now numb to the explosions shaking the city and the screams of its dying and terrified citizens. When he finally lifted his head from his shoes, night was falling.

Aimless wandering found him at the Kame game shop, or, rather, what was left of it. Any hope he'd had about finding grandpa and Yami still alive was dashed by the sight of the shop engulfed in flames along with the rest of the block. Otogi's Black Crown store a few blocks away had fared slightly better, sporting only a partially collapsed roof, but showed no signs of life when he banged on the front door and yelled for Ryuuji.

Giving up again on his life being anything but pain, he flopped down on the ground in front of the shop's door. Picking up a glass shard from the ground nearby, he laid it against his wrist, ready to carry out his decision.

"Down the road, not across the street," he whispered to himself as he began to apply pressure.

A strong hand gripped his, flinging the shard away.

He looked up into panicked crimson eyes, a pair of shocked violet eyes behind him.

"Y-Yami?" he stuttered, unable to say more as he was tackled by a screaming and sobbing Yugi.

Yami helped the pair off the ground and into the Black Crown. After getting Jou some water, which helped rinse the taste of bile from his mouth, Yami got the blond a cloth to wipe his dirty and tear-stained face. He then explained to Jou about using shadow magic instinctively to snatch he and Yugi out of the classroom at the moment of impact.

"Honda? Anzu?" Jou inquired hopefully.

Yami shook his head sadly as Yugi cried harder onto Jou's shoulder. Hearing a sound behind him, Jou turned to find a distraught Otogi helping a catatonic Bakura into a nearby chair.

"Ryou?" Jou whispered to Yami, eliciting another sad shake of his head.

"He was too far away," Yami elaborated.

Apparently, Ryou had gone to the office on an errand for the teacher. Bakura had reached for him with his shadows to pull them outside like Yami had done with Yugi, but the principal's office was just a few feet out of range. When they'd tried to go back, the principal's office wasn't there anymore. It had taken Yami and Yugi everything they had to keep the wailing ex-thief from the crumbling mass. Yami had then used the shadows to teleport them to the game shop.

"G-grandpa?" Jou stuttered, tears flowing freely again.

This time, there was no shake of the head, just silent tears streaming as Yugi threw himself into Yami's arms with a cry of anguish.

Looking away from the now sobbing pair, Jou shakily pulled out his cell to try Seto again. Even with the tragic knowledge about Honda, Anzu, Ryou and Grandpa, finding Yami, Yugi, Bakura and Otogi alive had renewed his hope.

"Hello? Jou? Is that you?" An excited voice answered his speed dial to Seto's private house line.

Being the paranoid and practical man that he was, Seto had built a bomb shelter under the mansion the year Gozaburo died, just in case any of the countries whose arms deals he'd pulled out of came calling. It held all the necessities, food, running water, even its own power source. Over the years Seto had continued to expand and upgrade it into more than just living quarters. When Jou had become part of their family, Seto had expanded and updated the space to include him. The private line was wired to the shelter.

"M-Mokuba," he choked before completely breaking down.

Knowing that Mokuba was alive made him believe that he hadn't lost his beloved Seto after all.

"Jou? Jou!" Mokuba called through the phone, forcing the blond to rein his emotions in and respond.

"Y-yeah, Mokie. I'm here," he sniffed.

"Thank Kami!" Mokuba sighed. "Where are you? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. And so are Yami, Yugi, 'Togi and 'Kura," he announced.

"W-what about the others?" Mokuba stammered.

"They didn't…they're not here, Mokie," he affirmed sadly.

"Jou, is Seto with you?" Mokuba asked after a long pause.

Jou felt his panic rising again.

"No, Mokuba. He's not with you?"

"He-he went out a few hours ago," the teen quietly confessed. "To look for you."

Jou was on his feet in an instant, heading out of the game shop.

"Where are you going?" Yugi cried out in fear.

"To find Seto!" he called back, breaking into a run as Mokuba related Seto's search plan, ignoring Yugi's tearful pleas for him not to go.

Jou made his way back to the high school, eyes darting around every which way, hoping to catch a glimpse of his beloved in the light from the flames all around as he constantly reassured Mokuba on the phone.

He rounded the corner just past the partially demolished arcade on his way toward the mansion and was grabbed around the waist. Too startled to scream, he was overjoyed to hear a raspy, "Found you."

Turning to face his true love, Jou smothered Seto's face with kisses between sobs of joy before submitting to his Dragon's claiming lips and tongue.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He woke up shaking, hoping once again that it had all been a dream.

Seto's warm embrace comforted him like always and he relaxed into the brunet's strong arms.

"Katsuya, it's alright," he soothed. "I'm here."

Jou curled further into the cocoon of Seto's arms.

It had been six months since the war had broken out and neither side seemed to be letting up or trying to find a less violent solution to their problems.

Yami, Yugi, Otogi and Bakura had all been brought into the shelter of the bunker. Sorting out space for everyone had been a bit of a problem at first, but they'd raided the partially demolished mansion and found beds for Otogi and Bakura, and for Yami and Yugi to share. Jou had been concerned about the water and food supplies until Seto explained that seven people would mean 10 years of supplies instead of 25 and he expected the war to be over by then. Since the bunker had only two bedrooms and Seto's office available, they'd moved the office equipment into his and Jou's bedroom and had Yami and Yugi share a room and Bakura and Otogi share a room.

For the first few weeks, nobody slept well, especially not Yugi, Jou and Bakura. One of the three would wake the rest of the survivors with their screams at least once a night. Yami could usually calm Yugi down with soothing words and kisses. The only person Bakura would even let near him was Otogi, whose mere presence next to him on the bed would calm the former tomb-robber. At some point, Otogi simply stopped sleeping in his own bed, opting to share Bakura's. Eventually, Yugi and Bakura stopped screaming and waking up in the middle of the night, Jou only stopped screaming.

This particular time, Seto's arm cocoon wasn't working for him; he needed more.

"Seto," he moaned, trembling with emotions other than fear. The desire caught him off guard. It had been almost seven months since they had done more than kiss. The shock of loss had been so traumatic for Jou that he could barely function, let alone want sex. Seto had been unbelievably understanding and Jou loved him even more because of it.

"Seto," he moaned again as the brunet had fully deciphered his pleading and started nipping and kissing across Jou's shoulders and chest.

Jou arched from the bed and shivered at every touch and kiss that Seto rained on his body, trying vainly to control his whimpers, moans and soft sighs as Seto pleasured him. As his seme worshiped his erection with lips and tongue while slowly and lovingly preparing him, Jou had to bite down on the heel of his hand to keep from crying out.

The slow slide of Seto's perfect form into his slick passage had Jou's eyes rolling back in his head, his legs wrapping tightly around slim but powerful hips. All thoughts of suppressing his cries of pleasure were forgotten as Seto struck his prostate again and again. For the first time since the bombings, Jou felt truly alive and loved and he clutched at Seto almost desperately. Twin cries of completion cut through the silent night.

"I love you, Katsuya," Seto murmured lightly against Jou's neck as they started drifting back to sleep, his Dragon still sheathed inside him. "Forever," the brunet added sleepily.

Wrapping his arms around the love of his life, Jou knew then that he'd never have another nightmare, and that somehow he and his new family would be all right.


End file.
